In most prior art cycle freewheels, the freewheel assembly comprises a hub member or boss which is secured onto a suitable part of the hub of the cycle wheel. The hub member of the freewheel assembly has an axial opening bearing the internal screwthread adapted to co-operate with the wheel hub, while the hub member rotatably carries a gear or pinion arrangement comprising one or more gears. At least one pawl is disposed between the hub member and the rotatable gear arrangement, to provide the freewheel drive action.
However, because the screwthread for fixing the freewheel assembly on the wheel hub is of fine pitch, and because the direction of the drive force applied to the freewheel assembly tends to tighten the freewheel hub member on the wheel hub, it is a difficult and delicate operation to remove this freewheel assembly from the wheel hub and generally requires the use of a vice, and a suitable remover for removing the freewheel assembly. Further, a specific freewheel removal tool is usually required to remove each type of freewheel assembly, because of the differences in the structure and the dimensions of the various freewheel assemblies available on the market.
Moreover, the operation of removing the freewheel assembly runs the risk of damaging the spindle of the wheel hub for example because the freewheel remover often tends to jump out of the lugs with which it is engaged on the freewheel assembly.